Storytelling Week 12: The Curse of the Piper

The Curse of the Piper

.It’s been a week since it happened. All of the adults don’t seem to understand. They have tried almost everything to keep this outbreak from harming more children but it seems as if they have absolutely no way of stopping it. My grandmother thinks that the town is cursed and I am starting to believe her. She has always told me tales of the piper and how he lured all of the children away. Every time she told me the story I would blow her off and call her crazy but now, I think she may be the only one who knows what’s going on. According to granny, many years ago, a man known as the Pied Piper did a great deed for the people of a town called Newtown. Unfortunately for him and for the people, the mayor of the town refused to pay the piper for his services and in return, the piper lured away all of the children of the town with his hypnotic tunes.

The people of town tried for years and years to have more children but after a few years, the piper would come back and the children would vanish. The people finally decided to relocate in order to get away from the Piper and start their lives over. This seemed to work and the townspeople had more children, and their children had children and so on. Now, kids are starting to go missing. Only this time, the ones going missing are girls. Girls ageing from 16-21. The whole town is in a panic. They have decided that the only way to keep us safe is to lock us up and keep an eye on us twenty-four seven. They have no clue what is causing this but, I think I might. Every girl went missing the same way. It all started with an iPod. I saw Sarah and Rachel sharing headphones on the bus one day. The next day, they were listening to the same iPod together and refused to put it down. When our teacher tried to take it away from them the kicked and screamed about how much they needed it. After that, every time they listened to this iPod, they would start screaming and jumping up and down and crying. When we would ask them what was wrong, they would reply, “Oh my Gosh! I love them so much!”

Not long after that, they were gone. These “symptoms” started happening to more and more of us and soon, girls all over town were having what they called “meet ups.” At these meet ups they would listen to their iPods and scream with each other. I’ve been trying to warm everyone about this but no one will listen except for Granny. She has decided to listen to whatever is on these mysterious iPods for herself. I watched her as she tore an iPod from one of the infected girls. I give her a day or so and she too will be gone like the rest of them. Granny puts the earbuds in and as I nervously stare at her. In an instant her eyes light up. When I ask her what is on the iPod, she stares blankly and says, “It sounds like a boyband. The Piper, he has found us. He must be using these boys to lure away our girls.” I stared at her, confused as she continued rambling. “He is smart. He’s taking away our girls. No girls, no children, just like all those years ago.  Curiosity gets the best of me and I snatch the earbuds from her. The last thing I remember is hearing the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard singing “You don’t know you’re beautiful” and then everything went dark.   

(Girls)

Author’s Note: This story is based on the fairy tale, The Pied Piper. As I was reading this story, I started thinking about things that could willingly lure kids away from their parents and I automatically thought about a tweet that I saw from a girl who said, “I would give up and sell my parents for One Direction.” As a self-proclaimed professional fangirl, I know how passionate girls can get about their favorite boy bands. You hear one amazing song from them and watch one music video ad next thing you know, you’ve been locked away in your room researching them for hours. I took this and thought to myself, if the Pied Piper used boy bands to do his dirty work, he could easily lure away hundreds of girls in an instant.

Bibliography: This story is based on the story The Pied Piper from the book, More English FairyTales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten(1894).